


If You Touch Me

by elliebird



Category: 9-1-1: Lone Star (TV 2020)
Genre: Hurt/Comfort, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-01
Updated: 2020-03-01
Packaged: 2021-02-28 07:21:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,280
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22889878
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/elliebird/pseuds/elliebird
Summary: TK gets hurt, Carlos struggles.
Relationships: Carlos Reyes/TK Strand
Comments: 16
Kudos: 315





	If You Touch Me

**Author's Note:**

> I had a few hundred words of this and figured I better finish it before Monday's episode and the influx of hurt TK Tarlos.

“You’re lucky to be alive.”

Carlos’s jaw was tight. When he spoke, the words were clipped.

TK closed his eyes. The base of his skull ached. The place between his eyes throbbed. He was having trouble breathing. 

It was the second time Carlos had said it, since he’d found him behind a curtain in the emergency room with a team of orthopedic specialists hovering over him, out of breath and a wild-eyed panic frightening a nurse into giving him a rundown. 

He had cracked ribs, a concussion and a shattered leg. He was facing a months-long recovery and an upward battle with his addiction. But he was alive. 

Owen had insisted the hospital keep him for a few days after they’d made sure his leg would eventually heal correctly. TK hadn’t had the energy to argue. Somehow, Carlos had convinced those involved in making the decisions to let TK stay with him. 

In the months they’d been dating, TK had started to leave some of his things at Carlos’s. He spent a night or two, when they’re schedules matched up and it made sense. He was happy to be out of the hospital, thankful for a break from the pain in his dad’s eyes but this - the tension, the silence - was not what he wanted. 

He hated the shuttered look in Carlos’s eyes. He hated the lack of time they’d had together since a drunk driver blindsided TK, nearly taking his life and sending the world he’d created in Austin into upheaval. 

It wasn’t that Carlos was wrong. He _was_ lucky to be alive. He should have died the night he proposed to Alex and overdosed. His injuries - a concussion, cracked ribs and his leg - would heal. He’d go back to work, eventually, pick his life back up and keep going. 

But Carlos wasn’t _Carlos_. 

TK was released hours ago. They’d been at Carlos’s for most of the morning, and in that time, Carlos hadn’t looked him in the eye. He looked _at_ him. Each time he spoke, the words sounded like they were being forced from his mouth. 

Carlos was keeping himself busy. TK had several new pairs of sweat pants with the left leg cut off and he was in bed in Carlos’ creation and his old college hoodie. It smelled like him. The pillows, the sheets, the bed smelled like him, reminders of the absolute chasm between them. 

He had his leg propped up on a stack of pillows and all manner of things he might need or might never need within reach. 

He was as comfortable as he was going to be. It felt more like a business arrangement than his boyfriend taking care of him. 

Carlos had gone to the house to pick up things TK might need and he was painstakingly arranging them as if the way the t-shirts were folded was a matter of life or death. 

TK watched him. He was wearing the same jeans he’d had on the night he asked TK to dance. His body language screamed _stay back_. 

After several tense, helpless seconds, TK let out a breath. “Will you just.” He cut himself off. He wasn’t trying to start a fight, but _fuck_ he was so tired. He struggled to sit up against the pillows. 

Carlos crossed the room. He stood, hovering, waiting for TK to need him. His eyes were shuttered. 

What TK wanted - more than sleep, for the pain to go away, to wake up and discover this was just a terrible dream - was for Carlos to put away the cop face.

TK bit back a wince as he reached for him. “Come here,” he said quietly. “Please.”

Carlos hesitated. TK waited for him to give an excuse, to insist there was something else that needed to be done. Instead, he sat at the edge of the bed, gingerly like he might hurt TK by being near. 

TK had seen the unreadable cop face once before. He was doing his best to be understanding but fuck he needed his boyfriend, not a cop.

“I miss you,” TK said. He missed the Carlos who picked him up after a long shift, looking sexy and rumpled in his uniform, who leaned across the seat to kiss him because he couldn’t wait. He missed the way Carlos looked in the morning, cooking eggs in his underwear and a t-shirt, that familiar soft smile when TK finally made his way out of bed and into the kitchen. 

The last seventy-two hours had been a nightmare. 

“I took a leave from the force,” Carlos replied as if TK hadn’t spoken. 

It was the last thing TK expected to hear. “What?” 

Carlos continued, “I’m using my vacation time.”

TK couldn’t think of a single thing to say. “Carlos.”

The tension in Carlos, in his shoulders, the set of his jaw, was plain, like he was bracing himself. “Don’t - TK.” He struggled to meet TK’s eyes. “Don’t make a big deal.”

“It is a big deal.” TK said, forgetting himself and shifting abruptly. “ _Shit_ ,” he breathed as the pain knocked the wind out of him.

Carlos reached for him, one hand on his elbow. He looked as helpless as TK felt. 

Fuck, it was a _big_ deal. “Why?” TK said as the pain subsided to a dull throb. 

“Because I want to, TK,” Carlos said abruptly. “I want to take care of my boyfriend, after he nearly fucking _died_ and I don’t want to feel like I can’t tell you cause you’ll insist I go to work and you’re not ready for serious, but fuck, I’m all in.” And just like that, all the air seemed to leave him, a balloon deflating. All the anger and the worry and the fear. 

“I’m all in,” he repeated, nearly inaudible. 

Yeah. Amid the missteps at the beginning of their relationship, when TK was looking for a distraction and Carlos was thinking beyond the next hook up, TK had figured out that where he was concerned, Carlos had fallen _hard_.

TK pulled Carlos’s hand towards him. “Come here,” he said again. “Please.” 

Carlos hesitated. “I don’t want to hurt you.” 

“I’m already hurt,” TK replied. He tugged at Carlos until he gave in. He climbed gingerly into the bed until he was beside TK. 

“What would be nice,” TK said, slinging an arm around Carlos’s shoulders and tugging him close, “is if my boyfriend would give me some love.” He kissed Carlos’s jaw. “Let Officer Reyes take a break.” 

Carlos let out a breath. He closed his eyes, leaning in until his forehead rested against TK’s. 

TK turned his cheek, seeking Carlos’s mouth. The first brush of his lips against TK’s own settled the panic that had settled in the space between his ribs. 

TK palmed Carlos’s cheek, reassuring himself with touch that as long as Carlos was here, things could be okay. 

Carlos dissolved then, holding himself up to keep from hurting TK but giving in. He kissed TK’s mouth, his cheek, the tip of his chin. 

“You were scared,” TK said quietly after they’d stayed like that for several quiet moments. 

Carlos looked exhausted. Every minute of the last seventy-two hours showed in the lines around his eyes, the shadows. 

Carlos turned into TK’s palm, pressing his lips to his skin. “I was _terrified_.”

TK understood that now. The distance Carlos had been trying to keep, the inability to look at him. 

“Yeah,” TK said and kissed him. When he pulled back, he said, “I need you not to disappear on me.” He hesitated. He wasn’t good at being this raw, this honest. “I need you.”

“You have me,” Carlos said and kissed him.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading. I'm on [Tumblr](https://elliebirdthings.tumblr.com/).


End file.
